Hijab in the list of Apple’s new emojis

Apple has previewed forthcoming emojis, including one that depicts a woman wearing a hijab. In honor of World Emoji Day (yes, it exists, and it was Monday), Apple — whose colorful and increasingly detailed palette of emojis has to some degree altered the way humans communicate — has shared a preview of 12 of its newest emojis.

They include a woman with a head scarf, a breast-feeding woman, a vomiting face, a zombie and a sandwich.

Apple has steadily moved toward inclusivity and diversity in its emojis, enabling users in 2015 to change the skin tone of most of the human emojis. The head-scarf and breast-feeding emojis seem to be in line with this trend.

The headscarf-wearing character was approved by Unicode, a non-profit international consortium, in November last year after a Saudi teen living in Germany campaigned for its inclusion.

Fifteen-year-old Rayouf Alhumedhi submitted a proposal to Unicode in September 2016, pointing out that there was no image that represented her.

Apple’s preview of the hijab emoji sparked some negative reaction online, with one Twitter user calling it a sign of “creeping Sharia” law.

The full set will be released later this year with updates for various Apple operating systems.

The hijab is a headscarf worn by many Muslim women who feel it is part of their religion.